Supply Chain Management –MGMT614 VU

GROUND ZERO
Supply Chain Management is the planning, organizing, leading, controlling and administration of
optimizing all value adding activities throughout the supply chain, so that products and services are supplied
in the right quantity, to the right location, at the right time, and at the optimal cost to the organization and
its supply chain partners and off course at an optimal price to the customers.
All value added activities in the above statement pertain to all Supply chain system activities along with
communication, inventory management, warehousing, transportation, and facility location. The supply
chain includes all activities and processes to supply a product or service to the final customer.
Often, the supply chain includes more than one organization in a series of supplier–customer relationships.
Intra (internal or within organization) and Inter (external or outside a single organization) Supply
Chains are evident and more or less have same outcome as far as customer satisfaction, improvement in
productivity, and increase in sustainable long terms profits are concerned.
Supply chains usually include four functional components:
(1) demand planning
(2) manufacturing, planning and scheduling
(3) supply planning
(4) transportation planning
Supply chain management (SCM) software is related to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
software; SCM software is focused on planning and ERP software is focused on execution. Two of the
most beneficial supply chain practices are
(1) Matching the correct supply chain strategy to the product (service) and
(2) Communication between supplier–customer partners in the supply chain.
SCM in Pakistan is in its nascent phase, a lot of room for improvement is available it is up to the mangers of
tomorrow or managers in training at Virtual University to look beyond the obvious and provide pragmatic
supply chain solutions to their organizations and their supply chain partners.
Remember operationally, tactically and strategically there would be common points amongst different
supply chains yet there would be unique characteristics which should be identifiable and exploited to ensure
long term sustainable profits for all the three tiers of the supply chain i.e. the upstream suppliers, the
downstream customers (or retailers, distributors whole sellers) and the enterprise that manufactures the
product or offers the service.
Before we move ahead, a caution, sometimes management of information alone makes an organization
enjoy the status of a critical supply chain partner or get classified as a supply chain organization like 4 PL
(4th Party Logistics) service providers. 4 PL business venture is a possible opportunity to act as a strategic
partner to other business organizations.
How to study:
Virtual University students are requested to remember to identify on completion of every topic:
1. The three types of flow i.e. product (or service or both), information and cash flow.
2. That, no Enterprise can attain competitive advantage in the absence of an effective logistics system.
3. Logistics and supply chain management if effectively exploited can act as a tremendous opportunity otherwise it would
cause pain, financial loss and often liquidation of business.
4. Logistics, SCM, Demand Chain carry more or less same significance and meaning.
5. Physical and logical boundaries of Supply Chains should be identified and exploited with. The Virtual University
students should pay attention to Design, Operations and strategies for supply Chain as it would help them grow
professionally and provide strength to their enterprises.
HOW TO STUDY FOR THIS CLASS
1. Pay attention to the module write ups. Watch /Listen to the lecture and read /follow the write up.
Please remember this course is the foundation class for purchasing, logistics, supply management,
the core and advanced supply chain management. Students should follow the width of the module
being discussed and only move into the depth when they feel comfortable.

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Supply Chain Management –MGMT614 VU
2. Learn to follow the sequence of Rationale, logic, introduction, modules and Gist and Crux at the
end of every lecture. Wherever supplement to a lecture has been place, look for its connectivity
with the previous and successive lecture modules.
3. Study this write up in the form of clusters as outlined in lecture no 1
4. Please use paper, pencil with calculator while working on examples. Develop the habit of using
Microsoft excel concurrently with respect to topics where it is being used or applied.
5. Remember the basic paradigm “the strength of the supply chain is the strength of its weakest link
(member)”. The qualitative and quantitative analysis should focus on the above mentioned
limitation or characteristic.

GOOD LUCK AND ALL THE BEST!

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